Ship Green, Save Green
Consumers’ growing awareness and rising concern of global warming has certainly pressured businesses to consider more environmentally friendly solutions. While you may be well aware of green packaging, energy saving equipment or reclaiming practices, sustainable transportation is a seldom talked about aspect that deserves attention, especially considering the amount of trucks, planes and trains used to deliver products to consumers.
Maybe you would to be surprised to know that numerous transportation and logistics providers nationwide are now adopting new methods to ensure the future of our environment. What can you do to contribute? Quite a bit, actually. By learning more about the new practices available in the logistic industry, you will be able to choose a greener provider or request that your current provider adopt greener practices.
Earth-friendly shipping and logistic options are readily available and more accessible than you may think. For example, consolidation programs, offered by companies like CaseStack, provide businesses with the opportunity to ship full truckloads by combining purchase orders headed to a single location or area onto one truck. This reduces road and dock congestion, while eliminating the need to have multiple trucks deliver the same amount of product less-than-truckload.
Finding out if your logistics provider is using alternative fuel is also a proactive way you can be apart of the global effort. Options such as our biodiesel initiative and other providers’ commitment to fill up with ultra low sulfur diesel reduce emission. Likewise, UPS has 167 compressed natural gas delivery vehicles throughout Texas, California, and Georgia.
Many companies have gone green by implementing fuel-efficient driving methods. By easing off the throttle, trucks that slow from 75mph to 65mph can increase fuel efficiency by more than a mile per gallon. Methods companies can employ to manage maximum truck speeds include electronic engine controls, driver-training, and incentive programs. In a typical long haul, speed control techniques could save thousands in cost and drop greenhouse gas emissions by nearly ten metric tons per year. Even reducing the prolonged idling of long-haul trucks can save up to 1000 gallons of fuel through the use of technologies like auxiliary power units (APU) and truck stop electrification.
This brings us to the next point of making a difference even by small changes. Transportation companies that install automatic tire inflation systems can reduce fuel consumption by 100 gallons per year in a typical combination truck. This method eliminates over one metric ton of atmosphere-harming greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing these destructive emissions by collaborating with other companies is the goal of voluntary partnerships, such as SmartWay Transport. SmartWay connects various freight industry sectors with the EPA to establish incentives for fuel efficiency improvements and carbon footprint reduction.
It’s time to update your supply chain to something more sustainable. The impacts of your green choices are visible and beneficial across the spectrum. There are always environmentally feasible options out there that will work for business. Be it the shipping method, logistics strategy, or choice of partner, it is ultimately up to your organization to decide the best path.
By Sum-Sum Chan & Jenny Joy
CaseStack
ww2.casestack.com
